The present invention relates to a passenger seat for the cab of an agricultural vehicle, such as a tractor or a combine harvester.
Though an agricultural vehicle is ordinarily only driven by one person, it is on occasions necessary for a passenger to accompany the driver. This may for example occur when a new driver is under instruction. As the cabs of agricultural vehicles normally have only one seat, the passenger must crouch in an uncomfortable position in order not to interfere with the driver""s control of the vehicle nor with his visibility.
As there is insufficient space in the cab of an agricultural vehicle for a permanent passenger seat, it has previously been proposed to provide a folding seat in the driver""s cab. Furthermore, known folding seats require a complicated two handed operation to effect the operation of raising and folding the seat.
European Patent Publication No. A-0 430 905 discloses a folding seat that can be fitted to a wheel arch or mudguard. A seat cushion is attached to the wheel arch by a U-shaped stay that can pivot relative to the seat cushion at one end and relative to the mudguard at the other end. The seat can be moved between a raised horizontal position in which it can be used by a passenger and a lowered vertical position in which it can be stored without obstructing the driver. In the raised position, the seat rests on the top of the wheel arch, which takes the weight of the passenger and is held in this position by means of a screw which fits in a threaded bush in the mudguard.
Another known folding seat for the cab of an agricultural vehicle is described in European Patent Publication No. A-0 646 492. This seat again requires the cab to have a structure defining a horizontal support surface. The seat cushion is formed in two halves that are hinged to one another, allowing the seat cushion to be folded in two. The front end of the seat cushion is pivotably attached to a stay, the other of which is pivotably mounted on the side of the wheel arch. In its storage position, the two halves of the seat cushion are folded over one another and they are stacked above the top of the wheel arch. The seat cushion does not protrude beyond the horizontal surface and does not therefore inconvenience the driver. To enable the seat to be used, the cushion is unfolded so that one half rests on the horizontal support surface and the other half projects from it and is support by the angled stay.
It is an object of this invention to provide a folding seat for the cab of an agricultural vehicle which has a stay pivotable between an operative position in which it extends vertically from the mounting bracket to the seat member in order to support the weight of the seat member on the mounting bracket and a storage position in which it lies between the mounting bracket and the seat member.
It is a feature of this invention that the stay is pivotably secured to the underside of the seat member and lies flat against the underside of the seat member in the storage position.
It is an advantage of this invention that a spring may bias the stay away from the underside of the seat member into the operative position, in which the plane of the stay is normal to that of the underside of the seat member. A stop projecting from the underside of the seat member may be provided to limit the movement of the stay under the action of the spring and thereby prevent the stay from overshooting its operative position.
For safety, it is desirable to provide the mounting bracket with a ramp surface over which the stay must ride prior to reaching the vertical operative position. This is in order to prevent the stay from being accidentally dislodged when the seat is in use.
An operating handle may conveniently be secured to the stay to project forward from the underside of the seat member, to ease manipulation of the stay while the seat is being folded away.
It is also preferred to provide a spring clip and ball stud for retaining the seat member against the mounting bracket when in the storage position.
The mounting bracket may conveniently comprise a first plate, to be mounted on a non-horizontal surface in the cab, and a second plate having an inverted xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d shape secured to or formed integrally with the first plate, the second plate having a horizontal limb connected along its rear edge to the upper edge of the first plate and a vertical limb extending downwards from the front edge of the horizontal limb towards the first plate.
It is further preferred for the lower end of the first plate to be bent upwardly to form a flange having a recess for receiving and locating the stay in its operative position.